2/16/2014 EQUIPPING TO SERVE
God’s Character - Part Two
Judgment for a Crime Measured by the One Against Whom It Is CommittedColin Smith addresses people who object to God’s judgment of sin:
You may say, “Wait a minute. How can any sin deserve everlasting destruction? If God is just, how can he punish like this?”
The best answer I ever heard to that question was given by a friend of mine who is a middle school pastor. He outlined the stages of the following scenario:
Suppose a middle school student punches another student in class. What happens? The student is given a detention.
Suppose during the detention, this boy punches the teacher. What happens? The student gets suspended from school.
Suppose on the way home, the same boy punches a police officer on the nose. What happens? He finds himself in jail.
Suppose some years later, the very same boy is in a crowd waiting to see the President of the United States. As the President passes by, the boy lunges forward to punch the President. What happens? He is shot dead by the secret service.
In every case the crime is precisely the same, but the severity of the crime is measured by the one against whom it is committed. What comes from sinning against God? Answer: Everlasting destruction.
Colin S. Smith, from the sermon “God Will Bring Justice for You,” www.UnlockingtheBible.com
Who is God and what is He like? He is pure, righteous and holy, the eternal Creator. We are looking to give some answers in this study of God’s Character.
Quick review: Character. Starting with some definition.
Character:
**The combination of qualities or features that distinguishes one person, group, or thing from another.
**Moral or ethical strength, quality that make up the inner nature of a person. Integrity.
**Qualities that make a person unique
If we are going to look at God’s character, we must ask the question: What is God like? Continuing that answer from last week.
God is love.
1 John 4:8 NKJV
8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
True love is outward, it is selfless. It focuses on the needs of others. God’s love reaches out to the whole world, even though it is populated with sinful people. Romans 5:8 tells us that even though we were still on the side against God, Jesus died for us.
Think about the message of John 3. God sent Jesus to this world to die for us. This was necessary because we had no other way to restore the broken relationship with God that controls the human race. God’s righteous nature requires punishment for sin. Jesus took that punishment for us.
1 John 4:9-10 NKJV
9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
1 John 4:9-10 NLT
9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 10 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
Jesus was the sacrifice. This amazing gift gives us the entrance in to God’s family. We can honestly go to God, our heavenly Father. He is the Father all need to follow.
Love is outward. Love is giving, focusing on the needs of others. This is the nature of God.
Let me read you a story: What Are Human Beings Made For? By John Stott.
Take a fish as an obvious example. God created fish to live and thrive in water. Gills are adapted to absorb oxygen from water, so water is the element in which a fish finds its identity, its “fishness,” its freedom. It finds itself in the element for which it was created: water. It’s limited to water, but in that limitation is liberty.
Suppose you had a little fish in one of those old-fashioned goldfish bowls. Suppose the little fish swam round and round his blessed bowl until its frustration became unbearable. The fish decided to make a bid for freedom and leap out of the bowl. If it landed in a pond in your backyard, it would increase its freedom because there would be more water to swim in. But if it landed on the carpet, then its bid for freedom would spell death.
If fish were meant for water, what are human beings made for? It would be interesting if we had time to sit down alongside one another and share our answers to that question. If fish were made for water, what are human beings made for? What is the element in which human beings find themselves, as water is the element in which a fish finds itself?
I don’t hesitate to say that according to Scripture the answer is love. Human beings are made for love because God is love. When he created us in his own image, he gave us the capacity to love and to be loved. So human beings find their destiny in loving God and in loving their neighbors.
John Stott, “Freedom”, Preaching Today, Tape No. 102.
We thrive in genuine love. Without it we don’t want to live. We find our destiny is growing to be more and more like Jesus. Thomas Chisholm (1866-1960) was an American songwriter who wrote several Christian hymns. He wrote over 1,200 sacred poems which appeared in many Christian periodicals. He served as an editor of the Pentecostal Herald in Louisville for a time. Let me share 2 of the 4 verses
I have one deep, supreme desire, that I may be like Jesus.
To this I fervently aspire, that I may be like Jesus.
I want my heart His throne to be, so that a watching world may see
His likeness shining forth in me. I want to be like Jesus.
He spent His life in doing good; I want to be like Jesus.
In lowly paths of service trod; I want to be like Jesus.
He sympathised with hearts distressed, He spoke the words that cheered and blessed,
He welcomed sinners to His breast. I want to be like Jesus.
What an awesome theme and longing of our heart - I want to be like Jesus. I want to live in His amazing love. We can all do this as we give Him our hearts.
God is merciful and gracious.
Exodus 34:6-7 NKJV
6 And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, 7 keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation.”
God gives us understanding on what His name reveals about his character. He is Lord!!! His compassion, kindness and forgiveness combine with His truth, holiness and justice. He is gracious and compassionate. He will not punish any person unless they reject His long-suffering love, spitefully and continually rejecting His patient love and mercy.
Speaking to the nation of Israel:
Deuteronomy 4:25 NKJV
25 When you beget children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, and act corruptly and make a carved image in the form of anything, and do evil in the sight of the LORD your God to provoke Him to anger,
When the time comes that they walk away from God and reject His Word -
Deuteronomy 4:30-31 NKJV
30 When you are in distress, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the LORD your God and obey His voice 31 (for the LORD your God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them.
God is so merciful, He forgives, He restores. He helps those who need Him.
Joel 2:12-13 NKJV
12 “Now, therefore,” says the LORD, “Turn to Me with all your heart, With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.” 13 So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the LORD your God, For He is gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, and of great kindness; And He relents from doing harm.
A history lesson: The act of rending, tearing a garment was an act of grief, sorrow or despair. The prophet was calling for broken and contrite hearts, not an outward display of sorrow or regret. God longed for hearts that were truly broken and filled with sorrow over sin. The result would be true repentance—a change of heart toward God. A broken heart is ready to turn from selfish ways to follow God. This opens the door for God’s mercy. It is God’s character to show mercy and compassion to His people. Look at Joel 2 again.
Grace can be pictured as God’s giving us the blessings of salvation that we don’t deserve. Mercy can be defined as God’s saving us from the punishment deserve because of sin. God offers forgiveness as a free gift that we receive by faith in Jesus.
A few more passages that tell us of God’s mercy and grace. What do they say to us?
Ephesians 2:8-9 NKJV
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Titus 2:11-12 NKJV
11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age,
Titus 3:4-5 NKJV
4 But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, 5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,
How can we apply mercy and grace?
Wooden Won’t Trash Knight
John Wooden, former basketball coach at UCLA, was the antithesis of many of today’s coaches. He seldom left his seat on the Bruins bench during a UCLA game. “I tried to teach players that if they lose their temper or get out of control, they will get beat,” he says. “Modeling was better than words. I liked the rule that we used to have that a coach couldn’t leave the bench. I’m sorry they did away with that.”
Wooden set amazing records in college basketball. From 1948 to 1975, he had a win-loss record of 885-203—a phenomenal career winning percentage of .813. He had an 88-game winning streak at UCLA.
Pressed in an interview to be critical of former Indiana University coach Bobby Knight, Wooden would only say, “I think Bob Knight is an outstanding teacher of the game of basketball, but I don’t approve of his methods. But I’m not a judge, and I’m not judging Bob Knight.”
Abilene Reporter-News (5-18-00)
A thought on resentment, we can say it is the opposite of mercy.
How Resentment Takes Hold, a thought by Max Lucado.
Resentment is when you let your hurt become hate. Resentment is when you allow what is eating you to eat you up. Resentment is when you poke, stoke, feed, and fan the fire, stirring the flames and reliving the pain.
Resentment is the deliberate decision to nurse the offense until it becomes a black, furry, growling grudge.
Max Lucado, The Applause of Heaven (Word, 1996), p.100;
Instead of resentment, learn God’s mercy and grace.
DISCUSSION
Review question from last week: This first question is more for you to reflect than to specifically respond. Do you often think about your character? Do you think about the impact it makes in your life?
What should a Christian do to develop the Christ-like character of real love?
How do you define love?
How do mercy and grace impact the world?
What is the impact when believers all show love, mercy and grace to each other?
Why is it easier to receive love, mercy and grace than to give it?
Prayer
